February 19, 2006

Physically isolated from all but a handful of attendants, Maharishi contemplates the lessons of the Vedas, the vast Sanskrit canon compiled some 3,500 years ago. From it, he evolves solutions for today's troubled world:

•Tear down major structures — the White House and the United Nations among them — and rebuild them according to Vedic architectural plans that harmonize construction with nature.

A prominently displayed advertisement has run daily since mid-December in the International Herald Tribune seeking investors of a minimum $60,000 for a World Peace Bond, promising a 10 to 15 percent annual return.

His idea is to buy 5 billion acres in 100 developing countries for labor-intensive farming, providing employment and income for the world's poorest people by feeding the First-World market for organic food.

The ads so far have failed to produce any takers. "We don't expect anything so soon. Because the project is big, people have to examine it from their different angles," said project director Benny Feldman, a Mexican economist.

Governments can't do it, Maharishi believes. Neither can they bring peace: "To resolve problems through negotiation is a very childish approach."

A few hundred meditators on either side of a conflict is all that's needed to create an aura of peace.

So, away with childish approaches. Get that $10 trillion and run with it. After examining it from different angles, of course. We First-Worlders await the tasty fruits and veggies.

Think of all the communes and collectivist farms one could assemble with $10,000,000,000,000 dollars. Imagine all the bureaucrats and their VIP lounges and flagged Benz's and motorcycle escorts one could provide. "From each according to his ability to each according to his need".....Picture the Workers Paradise. Whatta dream. too bad Karl and Kofi beat him to it.

"Labor-intensive farming"? Hasn't that been tried in the third world already?

Anyhow. In the last elections in Australia, their Green party's platform called for abolishing the military and instead giving everybody training in "nonviolent conflict resolution" — or in real terms, some random arbitrary nonsense bearing that label. Symbols with no known referents are, like, better and stuff, because they're uncorrupted by compromises with this sinful world we live in.